Tuning In: Boston Bruins bias lies in the eye of the beholder

Friday

Jun 7, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Bill Doyle Tuning In

Twitter has been littered with tweets from irate Bruins fans complaining about the announcing by Mike “Doc” Emrick and Ed Olczyk on NBC.

After Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, fans accused them of favoring the Pittsburgh Penguins and, even worse, of being dull. In Emrick’s and Olczyk’s defense, unlike local team announcers, it’s their job to remain neutral and fans in local markets often mistake that neutrality for bias against their teams. In addition, the Bruins beat the Pens, 6-1, Monday and it’s not easy to make such a lopsided game sound exciting, especially with the home crowd in Pittsburgh stunned to silence.

The Bruins’ 2-1 victory in double overtime at the Garden in Game 3, on the other hand, was about as intense as a hockey game can be and Emrick and Olcyzk were up to the challenge. After Tuukka Rask stopped 53 of 54 shots and the clock ticked well past midnight, Patrice Bergeron scored at 15:19 of the second OT to give Boston a 3-0 series lead over the top-seeded Penguins.

“Score,” Emrick screamed at the top of his lungs. “Bergeron has ended it.”

Olcyzk quickly broke down the play for viewers by explaining that Jaromir Jagr may have gotten away with a bit of a hook, but he stole the puck from Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin along the boards in front of the Penguins bench and got the puck ahead to Brad Marchand, who carried it into the Pittsburgh zone and passed over the middle to a streaking Bergeron, who got inside position on defenseman Brooks Orpik and deflected the puck into the far side of the net.

With a victory at 8 tonight on the NBC Sports Network, the Bruins can sweep the Penguins and advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. Rest assured that some fans in Boston will accuse the announcers of favoring the Western Conference champion and fans in Chicago or L.A. will believe the opposite.

Bruins fans, like all fans, enjoy bias, but only toward their team. They must have eaten it up when CSNNE studio analyst Tony Amonte admitted that Sidney Crosby’s poor play in Game 2 brought a smile to his face. But will Bruins fans accuse Amonte of bias if the Bruins play the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals? Amonte was born in Hingham and played hockey for Boston University, but he enjoyed his best NHL years skating for Chicago.

If Bruins fans believe Olczyk, a former Penguins player and coach, is biased toward Pittsburgh, imagine how they’ll judge his analysis if the B’s face Chicago. Olczyk began his NHL career with the Blackhawks and analyzes their regular-season games on television in Chicago.

Olcyzk criticized the Bruins during Game 3 for trying to carry the puck into the offensive zone on the power play while Pittsburgh clogged up the neutral zone and urged the B’s to dump it in and chase it. But he’s been far more critical of the Penguins in this series and rightfully so. They trail, 3-0. In Game 2, he pointed out that Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang panicked while trying to clear the puck up the middle from behind the net, only to have it intercepted, leading to Boston’s second goal.

Emrick, the former New Jersey Devils announcer, did lack passion Monday, but he made up for it Wednesday, when the game was closer. Emrick will never be as animated as Jack Edwards, but he does an excellent job of keeping up with the play, and because of its speed, hockey has to be the most difficult sport for a play-by-play announcer. Emrick won the Emmy Award as best play-by-play announcer for 2011 even though hockey does not have the following of football, baseball or basketball.

Speaking of dull, couldn’t the NHL have come up with something better than “Because it’s the Cup” for this year’s playoff slogan?

Comments that Bruins great Bobby Orr made on Dennis & Callahan on WEEI Thursday certainly weren’t dull. He said he thought the Bruins are a better team now than they were when they won the Stanley Cup two years ago, and he agreed with a Raymond Bourque comment that Zdeno Chara is a better defensive defenseman than Bourque or Orr was.

Contact Bill Doyle at wdoyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15.